Miller dueting on the cover of the First Edition's "Something's Burning." Bjorn Skifs might be able to sing on key more accurately than Kenny Rogers, but he isn't anywhere near as entertaining. The big problem with the album Hooked on a Feeling is that they didn't have Mrs. Miller was fun for ten minutes, and at least Nancy Sinatra and Sonny Bono had some sense of style. This is a parody record, but the joke's on Blue Swede because they bastardize important music and tanked their thankfully brief career in the process. Instead, they ripped Reed's "Rock & Roll" to shreds on the next album, and tinker with Burt Bacharach and Hal David so poorly here it is beyond travesty. Had they gone after "I Can Feel You" by the Addrisi Brothers and maybe "Sunday Morning" by Lou Reed, adding a hip and serious face, they would have been as cherished a memory as "Venus" by the Shocking Blue is. Side two is all covers: They take on Jose Feliciano Kenny Rogers & the First Edition by way of Mac Davis Lee Dorsey by way of Allan Toussaint Dionne Warwick and, of course, their other Top Ten, the dreadful re-working of the Addrisi Brothers' "Never My Love." The Association must have cringed, or laughed hardily, but had this group hired a consultant to give them a hip wardrobe and sense of musical style, they could have done some real chart damage. The Savage Rose and Brainbox were at least being themselves, Europeans staking their claim to a piece of the rock pie. They were trying too hard to be an American group. The group also provides evidence why Abba and Bowie became so popular while Blue Swede faded out of the picture rather quickly. It is so totally different from the other originals on side one that the band surprises with sparks of creativity - chameleon moves that give a hint they could have been capable of more. "Gotta Have Your Love" doesn't work, but what is intriguing is "Lonely Sunday Afternoon," a strange blend of Sonny Bono meets Lee Hazelwood on the other side of the world. Lead singer Bjorn Skifs collaborates with producer Bengt Palmers (he changed his name to Ben Palmers for the next disc) on a strange attempt at the Philly sound. This album is definitely bizarre, more so than the follow-up Out of the Blue, for this made-in-Sweden record shows what happens when someone other than David Bowie is copping the riffs. Should they have quit after this? Absolutely. Thomas hit is that - no, it isn't as sublime as the original, but for a novelty hit, it works. The significance of their rip of Jonathan King's arrangement of the B.J. Hooked on a Feeling Review by Joe Viglione
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